This invention pertains to a process and apparatus used in continuously and automatically manufacturing meat patties from cylindrical masses of ground meat. The invention is most practically applied in the food processing industry, but may also be used in restaurants, institutions and the like, and even on a smaller scale in the home.
Prior art devices for making meat patties generally have been of the type in which ground meat is placed within a housing (mold), the walls of which urge the meat into the center of the housing. A first plate having a hole cut through it corresponding to the diameter of the patty which is to be made reciprocates through horizontal slots in two opposite side walls. When the plate is within the housing, the ground meat fills the hole in the plate. The plate is then withdrawn from the housing and excess meat is scraped from the top and bottom of the patty by the edges of the slots in the walls. A plunger outside of the housing, having approximately the same diameter as the hole in the plate, forces the meat patty out of the hole. The patty is then stippled with a roller to give it the desired texture.
There are often problems with this system in that the meat is compacted into the hole and is hard to remove from the hole or that the meat sticks to the surfaces of the housing walls and must be scraped therefrom. The patties are very densely packed. This imparts excessive toughness to and removes juices from the patties made by the conventional process and equipment. Additionally, this system is based on the volume of the meat which can be accommodated within the hole in the plate, rather than on the weight of the meat. Thus, because of the different densities of meat, the weight of each patty may differ from the others.
While various devices have been used to alleviate these problems, the resulting patties are characteristic of machine-produced patties. Generally, they look like very flat disks aptly referred to as like "hockey pucks" having sharp edges between the top and bottom walls and the very regular side walls. Furthermore, the taste of these machine-produced patties leaves much to be desired. During the pressing process, these patties are frequently compressed to the extent that the juices are exuded and much of the flavor is lost from the meat patties. Frequently, the patties are pressed to such an extent that any voids which exist in the ground meat and give the meat its texture are eliminated. This produces a very compact piece of meat which often is so tough that it approaches rubber-like consistency.
Moreover, prior art patty-making apparatus, such as those commercially available from Hollymatic, Formax and FMC, were generally only suitable for making beef patties. Thus, some meat or food products having a gluey or sticky consistency could not be done automatically due to severe sticking to the molds or machine surfaces. The prior art devices generally form patties from masses of meat based on volume, not weight.
Several patents have been directed to finding a solution to these problems. Among them are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,509,971 issued to Elsaesser discloses a hamburg steak patty forming machine wherein an ice cream scoop of ground meat is manually placed on a sheet of paper moving on a conveyor belt. The sheet of paper is folded over the top of the meat and is conveyed under an angled pressing conveyor disposed above the conveyor on which the meat was first placed. Again, the measure of meat is volume, rather than weight. The process and apparatus is adapted for compressing only one row of ground meat into patties after the ground meat has been manually placed on the first conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,545,451 issued to Elsaesser discloses a meat patty forming machine wherein meat extruded from a grinder is cut off into suitable lengths and falls between two rolls of paper, one on either side of the extruded mass of meat. The mass is compressed between the two rolls of paper at the same time that it is wrapped. The wrapped patty must be compressed further by passing through adjacent feed rollers before the continuous link of wrapping is cut to define individually wrapped patties. This devices provides meat on the basis of volume, as determined by the length of the extrusion, rather than weight. Additionally, only one mass of meat goes through the paper roll presser means at once.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,657,423 issued to Elsaesser discloses a machine for making steak patties wherein a continuous mass of meat is extruded from a grinder between layers of moving paper. The meat and the paper are conveyed under a dividing and mashing unit comprising a drum having radially disposed divider blades projecting out from the surface of the drum. After passing under the dividing and mashing unit, the continuous mass of extruded meat is formed into a plurality of wrapped bars of ground meat. The bars are conveyed to an area where a knife severs the wrapped bars from each other. This machine provides an extruded continuous mass of meat based on volume, rather than discrete substantially cylindrical masses of meat in a plurality of rows on a conveyor belt. This machine, like the others described in the above-mentioned Elsaesser patents, forms patties which are wrapped in paper. The requirement of the use of paper adds to the complexity of the machines as well as to their cost and to the cost of the process of forming the patties.
There has been a long felt and unsolved need in the food industry to produce a meat patty which has the appearance, consistency or texture and taste of homemade meat patties. Because of the great time and labor involved in making meat patties manually, the food industry has generally sacrificed quality for the efficiency and speed offered by an automated process.
By employing the present invention, the food industry could retain the present efficiency and speed but produce meat patties having much greater public appeal. The patties produced by the present invention may be produced in restaurants or produced by manufacturers for packaging and sale for restaurant, institutional and home use. This would be beneficial to the economy in general, and to the so-called fast food type restaurants in particular.
Our prior abandoned application Ser. No. 744,587 describes a process and apparatus in which substantially spherical masses of meat are formed into meat patties by flattening between a rotating drum and the conveyor belt. The present invention seeks to improve that method and apparatus by providing better operating speed and better control of patty size and shape.